The present invention relates in general to chemotherapeutics, and more specifically, to macromolecular chemotherapeutics.
With increased incidence of cancer, the development of new approaches to cancer therapy has garnered increasing importance for advancing quality patient care. Although several chemotherapeutics have demonstrated efficacy in treating cancer, several issues have presented challenges to the development of safe and effective chemotherapeutics. Such issues include, for example, aggressive resistance development to drugs or drug cocktails, significant off-target toxicity of chemotherapeutics, and solubility and delivery issues, including insufficient drug accumulation in tumor tissue and rapid clearance from the body.
The design of a simple yet highly efficacious system for cancer therapy remains a challenging endeavor. Moreover, a need remains for chemotherapeutic systems that maintain efficacy after repeated exposure. A need also exists for chemotherapeutic agents with efficacy against cancer stem cells.